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THE LIFTING CUKE. 



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BUTLER'S SYSTEM OF HEALTH-EXERCISE. 

,^^^»^ THE LIFTING CURE: 



SCIENTIFIC APPLICATION OF THE LAWS OP MOTION 



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MECHANICAL ACTION 



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PHYSICAL CULTURE AND THE CUHE OF DISEASE. 



D. R^] 



By d. py butler 




The function of a true physician is to prevent and cure disease, by 
teaching, applying, and obeying natural laws. 



BOSTON : 
D. P. BuTLEE, !No. 19 Temple Place. 



NEW YORK: 

J. W. LEAVITT AND L. G. JANES, No. 830 BROADWAY. 

1868. 






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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, 

By J. W. liEAVITT & L. G. JANES, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the TJnited States for the Southera District 

of New York. 



THE TROW & SMITH 

BOOK MANUFACTURING COMPANY, 

*6, 48, 50 Greene Street, N. Y. 



THE LIFTING CURE. 



BUTLER'S SYSTEM OP PHYSICAL TRAINING, ADAPTED TO STRENGTH 

AND HEALTH CULTURE, AND APPLIED TO MEN, 

WOMEN, AND CHILDREN. 



THE TRUE BASIS OF PHYSICAL CULTURE. 

A HUMAN being is made up of organs ; and the manifesta- 
tions of the various mental and physical powers depend upon 
and correspond with the condition of those organs, whether 
weak or strong, healthy or diseased. Hence, whatever will 
secure the greatest degree of strength, vigor, health, and per- 
fection of the physical organization, should be adopted and 
applied by all, as the first and most important duty of life. 

Action is life, power, success. Inaction is failure, impo- 
tence, death. Proper action is health, vigor, and the condition 
of long life. Hence, to comprehend the law of action is the 
basis of all physical, mental, and moral progress. The 
mechanical law, the law of motion or action, is the primary, 
fundamental law of the universe, man included. The laws of 
vitality, electricity, and chemical action, originate in and are 
subject to it. It is the law of creation and destruction, of life 
and death. As development, health, and longevity are the 
reward of obeying the laws of man's mechanism, so degeneracy, 
disease, and premature death are no less the legitimate pun- 
ishment of their violation. Hence perfect obedience is at 
once the highest duty and greatest necessity. 



4 butler's health-exeecise. 



MAN A MACHINE. 

Physically, a liuman being is a machine; and, being the 
highest type of organization, is, of necessity, the most perfect 
machine. The perfect action of the steam-engine depends 
upon the quality, form, and adjustment of its several parts. 
These conditions being defective, the action of the machin^ is 
imperfect. The same principle applies to man. Perfection 
and proper adjustment of the parts or organs, obedience to the 
fundamental law of mechanical action, is strength and health. 
The reverse is weakness, disease, and premature death. The 
more perfect the machine, the more delicate in adjustment and 
complicated in structure, the more serious are the consequences 
of any violation of the laws of its mechanism. Taking man- 
kind as we find them, weakness and disease is the rule, health 
and strength the exception. The reverse is the natural order. 
Hence it is clear that the mechanical, hygienic, and psycholo- 
gical laws which govern man's existence, growth, and culture, 
are violated. We require, therefore, a system of mental and 
physical discipline which will put man in harmony with those 
general laws. The Lifting Cure, a scientific application of 
exercise with heavy weights, furnishes such a system of treat- 
ment. 

This system strengthens the weak organs, and expels dis- 
ease by a graduated, co-operative exercise of the whole body. 
The weak organs, by the use of weights which tax their power 
largely, gain strength, proportionately, more rapidly than the 
strong and healthy parts, to which the same weights give only 
a moderate exercise. Moreover, since all parts of the body 
sympathize one with another, in health or disease, the weak 
parts are aided in their effort to become stronger by the in- 
creasing vitality of the system in general. Thus the strength 
of the whole body is augmented and equalized, the weak 
parts are built up, disease is expelled, and the individual be- 
comes uniformly strong, and consequently healthy. 



THE LIFTING CURE, 



THE PROPER USE OF HEAVY WEIGHTS. 

Ill referring to the use of heavy weights, we do not mean 
such exercises as have been practised in ordinary gymna- 
siums ; nor such as are applied to developing special power, 
as illustrated in the training of prize-fighters and acrobats. 
These result in an unbalanced and consequently unhealthy 
condition. This is demonstrated by the fact that they are 
usually short-lived. JSTor do we mean the use of a weight 
which exceeds the power or endangers the safety of the patient 
under any circumstances. A weight of ten pounds may be 
very heavy to one person, while a weight of five hundred 
pounds is very light to another. 

All methods of lifting on the principle of raising one end 
of a scale-beam, or where the weight is taken abruptly from 
an unyielding surface, Avithout the use of the spring, render a 
thorough co-operation impossible ; for it is evident that the 
greatest effort is at the instant of raising the weight, which, 
being taken suddenly, of necessity finds some parts of the body 
prepared to receive it, while others fail to act in co-operation. 
The weight thus suddenly taken is heaviest at first, requiring 
less exertion as it rises; while the contrary is the only safe 
and natural method of action. In this manner, injurious 
strains and unnecessary soreness are induced, and the internal 
action resulting in vital development cannot be secured. 

HAND-LIFTING, WITH PROPER APPARATUS, THE ONLY 
CORRECT METHOD. 

But the lifting of properly graduated weights by the hands, 
with an apparatus constructed on scientific principles, is the 
only safe, efficient, and thoroughly co-operative exercise. Its 
beneficial effects have been demonstrated in our practice in 
hundreds of cases. The adjustment of the weight is so perfect, 
the action of the spring so effective, that sufficient time is given 



6 butler's health-exekcise. 

to secure a completely co-operative action of the whole body ; 
each part sustaining its proper share of the weight, and all 
acting in perfect harmony. In hand-lifting by our method, as 
the weight is slowly raised from the spring, it is first received 
hj the leading external muscles ; then, through increased co- 
operation, by the whole external muscular system ; then, in 
order, by the muscular attachments of the vital organs, and 
the muscular coatings of the organs themselves : so that not 
only the external muscles, but every part of the system, from 
head to foot, is called into harmonious and combined action, 
even to the minutest muscular fibre of the coating of each 
artery and vein and every internal organ. This action, from 
its first influence on the leading external muscles to its final 
perfected infiuence on the vital organs, is continually increas- 
ing in perfection, owing to the more complete co-operation 
secured at each succeeding stage. Thus exercise in accordance 
with this system develops power chiefly at the vital centres ; 
the co-operation being more perfect, and the action more even- 
ly distributed and harmonious there, than on the external 
muscles which first receive its efi'ects. The brain and spinal 
-column, as well as the other vital organs, partake in this action. 
But if sufl&cient time is not taken in the raising of the weight, 
which is impossible without the use of the spring, it is heaviest 
at the first effort, requiring less exertion as the effort is con- 
tinued, thus reversing the natural order. The result is, that a 
few leading muscles are alone affected, and these become ex- 
cessively developed while the vital centres are neglected. By 
the proper method of hand-lifting, we not only obtain complete 
co-operation by means of the spring, but secure the perfected, 
powerful action of the dead-weight, when the weight is raised 
above the spring ; with the additional advantage of protection 
against strain and injury, secured by co-operation. Thus we 
combine every advantage, with none of the disadvantages of 
dead- weight and spring-lifting, in a natural and complete ex- 
ercise. 



THE. LiFrma cure. 



COMPLETE DEVELOPMENT IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT TRAINING. 

In a healthy organization, size and symmetry, or quantity, 
and balance of power, are the first and most important con- 
ditions to be secured by training. Then, in natural order, 
maturity and refinement follow. Complete development is 
impossible without training, or, in other words, proper mechan- 
ical action. A true method of physical culture is as necessary 
for the body as a correct mode of intellectual culture for the 
mind. Both are natural^ provided for in the original consti- 
tution of man. As no man can be in the highest sense a 
natural man without moral, social, and intellectual culture, so 
none can be truly natural without proper physical culture. 
We can safely suppose that none but the ignorant will object 
to scientific physical culture as being unnatural'; while many 
of those forms of exercise which might be considered as 
natural by the ignorant, are really violations of natural law, — 
a kind of physical drudgery pertaining to our unnatural and 
imperfect condition of life. 

Physical training should commence with childhood ; and 
the kind of exercise should be in harmony with the natural 
and fundamental law of youth, which is development, or 
growth. The proper nse of heavy weights is the agency for 
developing size ; while slow and co-operative action secures 
the next important condition, — balance, or symmetry. Hence 
we find that those who have been trained in light gymnastics 
do not develop power as successfully as those who have never 
trained at all. Thus the use of light weights and ordinary 
modes of heavy gymnastics produce certain conditions which 
limit development ; as, by these methods, only the exter- 
nal muscles are developed, at the expense of vital power and 
symmetry. As, in all things, size, other conditions being 
equal, is the measure of power, any thing which limits harmoni 
otcs development must necessarily be objectionable. 



8 butler's health-exeecise. 



BANGERS OF EXCESSIVE MUSCULAR DEVELOPMENT, 

In all prevailing false methods of physical culture, the ten- 
dency is to develop large external muscles, especially about the 
extremities. Many young men, totally ignorant of the laws of 
exercise, commence training with a desire to secure this ex- 
cessive and abnormal limb and muscular development. So 
also, by a leading method of light gymnastics now common, 
especially among our young ladies in their boarding-schools, 
aided by pedestrian exercise, a great development of the 
lower limbs is produced, necessarily at the expense of vitality 
and true symmetry. If the power thus expended were applied 
to increasing the size of the contracted waist and chest, and 
the power of the vital organs, we should hear of fewer in- 
stances of premature sickness and death among the pupils 
and graduates of these institutions. But, if this abnormal de- 
velopment is the object of physical culture, it is easily ob- 
tained. "We have only to apply a series of long-continued limb 
exercises, with sharp, severe action of the leading muscles, 
and we shall thus ' secure an excessive development in these 
directions ; but the result is inevitably injurious. By an ab- 
normal development of the limbs and leading muscles, the 
vital centres are robbed of their power, and the doors are 
thrown open for the entrance and development of the long 
train of diseases to w^hich the human S3^stem is liable ; and 
when a person thus trained is attacked by disease, the power 
needed to combat it, instead of being present at the vital cen- 
tres, is drawn away to the extremities. Hence the liabilities 
to a fatal termination of the disease are greatly increased. In 
confirmation of this, we find acrobats, prize-fighters, and all 
cases of abnormal muscular development, short-lived and un- 
healthy, as a rule. When attacked by fevers and all acute 
diseases, to which they are especially liable from their lack 
of vital power to resist them, for the same reason they sink 
rapidly, and die suddenly. But a proper system of training 



THE LIFTING CUEE. » 

will develop power primarily at the vital centres, securing a 
subordinate but harmonious muscular development. 

PROPER TRAININQ A REVOLUTION. 

When a person goes into training, he goes into revolution ; 
and, if abnormal conditions exist, he will pass through the 
revolution of disease as well as of development ; for he can- 
not add to the powder of his organs without a tendency to use 
that power to expel whatever disease may be lurking there. 
The entire disease may only be expelled by the utmost of 
power. Therefore the revolutions of development and the 
cure of disease go on hand in hand till the maximum power 
is attained. Then, in natural order, comes the reward of 
obeying the fundamental law in reference to development, — 
freedom from disease, capacity to enjoy, with the additional 
luxury of the refining of that power, or the ripening peculiar 
to healthy age. 

NECESSITY OF GRADUAL DEVELOPMENT. 

Man is a machine ; and, in training, he must be called into 
action in accordance with the principles of his mechanism. 
One of the essential rules in using machinery safely and effi- 
ciently is to apply very little power at first ; the primary ob- 
ject being to call the parts into slow, harmonious, co-operative 
action. Having started the machine, and secured the general 
co-operation, then a little more power is added to increase the 
speed ; then a little more, until such a degree has been attained 
as the strength of the machine will warrant. It is possible to 
run a locomotive at the rate of a mile a minute : but it does 
not pay ; it wears the road and the machinery to a degree 
which no receipts, however large, will justify: the ordinary 
rate is thirty or forty miles an hour on good roads. So that 
which is the law of safety and success in the application of in- 
organic power, is the law of economy in a still higher degree 
in the development of the human system. Hence, when a 



10 btjtlek's health-exercise. 

person begins training, he should use weights largely within 
his power, and increase them moderately, taxing his strength 
a little. more in proportion as he advances from week to week ; 
and not until he has been in training at least three months 
should he presume to use all the power at his command. It 
takes fully that length of time to insure that complete co-opera- 
tion and the use of all the parts which enable them to perform 
their functions properly in the use of power in co-operative 
action. 

If, by reason of want of vital power, or a forced, unnatural 
system of culture, the natural order of development is inter- 
fered with, when the person commences training, and devel- 
ops a greater degree of power, this is at once directed to the 
perfection of the physical organization. !N^ature will never 
rest contented until her processes are accomplished; and 
when she has been restrained, and development has been 
arrested, with each increase of power she will surely apply it, 
in the natural order of progress, to the completion of the work 
already begun. If other processes are now going on, they 
may be arrested until this result is accomplished. Thus, 
through a series of actions and re-actions, a natural order of 
development is commenced and carried on until the desired 
end is reached. 

THE ORDER OF DEVELOPMENT AND CURE. 

The first result of the exercise is to equalize, the second 
to invigorate, the third to reconstruct and build up the tis- 
sues of the body. In the process of continued training, these 
results are inevitable, and they necessarily involve the ex- 
pulsion of whatever disease is present in the system. With 
equalization and invigoration, among the first apparent results 
of the exercise is the securing of a more perfect circulation 
throughout the tissues, and toward the surface, of the body. 



THE LIFTINa CUKE. 11 



BEAUTY AND ENERGY RESULT FROM PROPER TRAINING. 

The skin, which had been clogged with decaying matter, 
yellow with bile, or white for lack of capillary circulation, 
acquires the natural glow and color of health. Though the 
patient may not increase in actual weight, the face becomes 
fuller, and rounder in its outlines (the uniform and natural 
indication of vigorous vital organs), and acquires that beauty 
of form, and lively and animated expression, which can only 
result from healthy physical, mental, and moral conditions. 

]N"or is the efiect upon the general tone and character of 
the mind and will less apparent. The vacillation and weak- 
ness peculiar to an unbalanced condition come to an end. 
The step is firm, and the will determined. Consciousness of 
power underlies and promotes all the elements of a perfect 
manhood and womanhood. Persons who have vainly grappled 
with health-destroying habits, or who, in consequence of the 
weak and abnormal condition of their mental faculties, have 
had no desire to resist them, may now oppose them success- 
fully. During our practice, we have had many patients who 
have given up the use of tobacco and intoxicating drinks, who 
had tried and failed in their previously weak and diseased con- 
dition. 

AN UNERRING DIAGNOSIS OF DISEASE. 

As weakness precedes disease in every part or organ of the 
body, and as the body is practically no stronger than the weak- 
est part, a thoroughly co-operative exercise will detect and point 
out the weak and diseased organs with unerring accuracy ; 
and with the development of a sufficient degree of power, 
varying in different individuals according to their natural 
constitution, strength, and susceptibility, the curative process 
is begun. The patient, who has at first experienced the grate- 
ful effects of equalization and invigoration, may now develop 
a degree of soreness and pain in the diseased organs, or their 



12 butler's health-exercise. 

nerves, reporting in other portions of the body. At the same 
time, the disease, if chronic, becomes acute in its symptoms ; 
the system is aroused to unusual action ; and what we term a 
crisis of the disease is produced. The patient's power, devel- 
oped by systematic culture, is now turned, in a natural and 
orderly way, to expelling it from the system. This is indicated 
by the fact that the patient is unable to lift his heaviest weights 
with as great ease as formerly, — frequently unable to lift them 
at all. Upon the develop rnent of this condition, the attendant 
•physician should allow the patient to use only such weights 
as are fully within his power, regulating the action and vary- 
ing the application according to the symptoms as they are 
developed from day to day. The power of the patient should 
not be tested to the utmost until the curative process no longer 
requires it for the present; which is indicated by an increase 
of general vigor, and a tendency to lift heavier weights. 

THE CURE OF ORGANIC DISEASES. 

In thus claiming to cure disease, we use the word " cure " 
in its ordinary acceptation. There may be difference of opin- 
ion among physiologists as to whether real organic diseases 
can be completely cured ; but there is no doubt that they can 
be reduced to a minimum, so that their liabilities to encroach- 
ment upon health and life are scarcely more than in case of 
absolute cure. At every step of the constant increase of or- 
ganic power developed by training, the disease is brought un- 
der more perfect control, with ever-increasing tendencies to 
complete eradication. Hereditary diseases remain many years, 
and often for life, in the system, in a germinal condition ; but, 
,on the contrary, always develop and crop out when the person 
becomes sufficiently weak. Cancers, tumors, and, in general, 
all humors of the blood, morbid matters accumulated in the 
system for want of organic power to resist and expel them, 
appear in a malignant form only when invited by a weak and 
debilitated condition of some part of the system. With suffi- 



THE LIFTING CTJKE. 13 

cient power, Nature would have expelled tliem gradually 
through the ordinary channels. This power is given by train- 
ing ; and their acute manifestations are thus prevented. It 
becomes an interesting question, whether this building up of 
the tissues, and developing of organic power, by proper train- 
ing, especially if applied in the first stages of the disease, may 
not supersede the application of surgery. We have no doubt 
that, in many cases, such would be the result. 

BROKEN BONES, WOUNDS AND INJURIES. 

In all cases of injury to the person, when the application 
of the treatment is possible, a systematic course of training 
should be adopted. The increased power, and more perfect 
circulation, will assist the processes of l!^ature, relieve pain, 
and effect a cure, much more surely and rapidly than by or- 
dinary methods. In accordance with the principles by which 
chronic diseases are cured, in cases of injuries which occurred 
long before the patient commenced training, and which were 
healed to the extent of the power then existing in the system, 
there will, with every decided increase of power developed in 
training, ngain be manifested acute symptoms, and the healing 
process will be renewed, until, finally, the part affected becomes 
equally strong and healthy with other portions of the body. 
We have had many instances of this kind in our practice, 
where injuries long forgotten have been developed, and the 
previous partial cures made permanent and complete. 

PRACTICAL RESULTS IN APPLICATION 

However perfect our theory of disease, of its nature and 
cure, may be, we are aware that its success depends upon its 
practical results in application. In a large number of cases, 
including patients of all ages and both sexes, we have treated 
many diseases, both chronic and acute, with uniform success. 
The treatment has been particularly effective in cases of 
chronic dyspepsia, catarrh both chronic and acute, and diseases 



14 butler's health-exercise. 

of the liver and kidneys. We have treated many cases of this 
kind, and have never failed to relieve or cure. 

Cases of neuralgia and chronic inflammatory rheumatism 
of ten or twelve years' standing, which the most skilful phy- 
sicians in Europe and America have failed to relieve, have 
yielded to this natural remedy, which secures equalization and 
organic power. All kinds of nervous diseases and weaknesses 
caused by an excess of nervous or brain action, are radically 
cured by this method. 

"We have been very successful in treating many cases of 
rupture and hemorrhage, when one not comprehending the 
philosophy and method of application would suppose that the 
treatment would increase instead of lessening the difficulty. 
We have had several cases of hernia ; and, by increasing the 
strength of the abdominal muscles and adjacent parts, the 
tendency has always been to relieve the patient. 

In cases of incurable consumption, accompanied by hem- 
orrhage of the lungs, our treatment has operated very favora- 
bly in lessening or stopping the hemorrhage, in equalizing the 
vital forces, and, as we believe, in prolonging life. 

Contrary to what may be commonly supposed, we have 
been unusually successful in treating female diseases and 
weaknesses, owning, probably, to the fact that women and girls 
are unaccustomed to the use of nearly or quite all their power, 
and to ordinary, heavy manual labor long continued, which 
injures the tones of the organs, and renders them less respon- 
sive to curative agencies. The temperament of females also 
renders them more sensitive, and more easily invigorated by 
proper training. The diseases and weaknesses to which females 
are peculiarly liable, are, moreover, chiefly of a nature result- 
ing from want of equal and sufficient action ; while those 
affecting men and boys more generally result from excessive 
action. Falling of the womb, and female weaknesses in gen- 
eral, accompanied by the worst forms of uterine hemorrhage, 
we have, in many instances, relieved and cured. 

Hemorrhage can rarely occur unless it is preceded by con- 



THE LIFTING CUKE. 15 

gestion and weakness of the affected part, and want of equal: 
ization and functional vigor. Training equalizes the circula- 
tion, removes the congestion, gives power and regulated action 
to the organs, and prevents hemorrhage by removing its 
cause. 

Incipient consumption may be prevented from further de- 
velopment by this treatment ; and scrofula and all forms of 
unhealthy humors are removed, the morbid matters being ex- 
pelled through the skin and natural channels of evacuation. 
We have no doubt that cancers and tumors may thus be pre- 
vented, or, in their early stages, arrested in their develop- 
ment ; thus, in such cases, avoiding the necessity of surgical 
operations. We question whether, in the advanced stages of 
many diseases, as, for instance, cancer and gravel, this increase 
of organic power may not produce sufficient action to arrest 
the formation of and disintegrate the morbid accumulations, 
and expel them from the system. While we have little or no 
faith in any direct chemical effect or partial and local action 
of the organs in the cure of disease, we have unbounded faith 
in the inherent power of strong and regulated action of all 
the organs. Man's chemistry kills : God's chemistry cures. 

Constipation, indigestion, and irregular circulation, — the 
causes of piles, — are surely prevented by proper training ; 
and thus they may be readily relieved and cured. Fevers, in 
.their early stages, may be prevented from becoming seated. 
We have thus treated typhoid and lung fevers, frequently 
relieving the patient by a single exercise. Pleurisy, and acute 
pains in general, including headache, toothache, and rheumatic 
pains, are frequently cured by a single exercise. 

Mineral and vegetable poisons long contained in the sys- 
tem have been developed with all the symptoms of recent in- 
troduction, and expelled by training. All kinds of bruises 
and injuries to the person heal more rapidly, and with less 
pain, with training, than they could without, owing to the more 
powerful and equal circulation and vital force. 

Thus it is evident that an increase of general organic power 



16 BUTLEE S HEALTH-EXEECISE. 

and equal action, with obedience to all hygienic laws, is the 
best and most efficient method of cure. This power can be 
developed only by a correct system of physical training. 

TEE TWOFOLD CULTURE OF THE BRAIN. 

The brain is, first, a physical organ, — a part of the physical 
body, — and subject to all the laws of physical culture and 
growth. 

It is, secondly, the organ of the mind, — a combination of 
numerous mental faculties, depending upon their special action 
for special mental culture. 

A true philosophy of physical culture includes also a 
true philosophy of mental culture. Our system of physical 
training develops brain-power both directly and indirectly, — 
indirectly through the increased power and vigor of the body 
in general, and directly by the especial and vigorous action of 
certain mental faculties. 

The faculties of self-reliance, firmness, concentrativeness, 
hope, courage, faith, and many others, are directly called into 
powerful action ; and, in accordance with the laws of all or- 
ganic growth, they must and do increase in power. 

While these faculties are called into direct action during 
training, the brain as a whole, and every part of it, partakes of 
the general equalizing and invigorating influences aff'ecting 
the whole bodv. The brain, as a whole and in its several 
parts, being the organ of the mind, the physical agent through 
which the several faculties are manifested, and subject to all 
the special laws of culture and growth recognized by phrenolo- 
gists, is none the less a part of the physical body, depending 
equally upon its general laws of development, growth, and 
culture. Hence, whatever will develop the body as a whole 
harmoniously, restraining abnormal development where it has 
become excessive,. and enlarging the organs where there is a 
deficiency of size or power, will exercise the same equalizing 
influences upon the brain. In this manner, we secure a con- 



THE LIFTING CURE. 17 

stant and powerful tendency to develop deficient intellectual 
and moral conditions, as exhibited in partial or complete 
idiocy ; and to remove, by equalization, that excessive and ab- 
normal action of the brain, or of its several organs, which re- 
sults in monomania or in insanity, 

EXPLANATION. 

This system of exercise and cure contains essentially three 
elements, under which are comprehended other minor pecu- 
liarities : — 

1st. It is a true exercise. 

2d. It is a true developing agency. 

3d. It is a true method of cure. 

Being a true exercise, it is necessarily a true developing 
agency ; being a true exercise and a true developing agency, 
it is necessarily a true method of cure ; and a true exercise, a 
true developing agency, and a true method of cure, necessarily 
involve the utmost of strength and health. 

The object of the system is, primarily, to secure strength 
at the vital centres ; to develop power in the vital organs, the 
spine and brain ; and, subordinately, to secure a harmonious 
and symmetrical development of the muscular system. Other 
methods, on the contrary, tend chiefly to muscular develop- 
ment, and do not especially add to the vital power. If the 
muscular system is developed to an excessive degree, it robs 
the vital and nervous systems of their force, and prepares the 
way for disease. 

"We secure this uniform development of power and health 
by the scientific application of the law of mechanical action, 
through the use of machinery adapted to that purpose. Why 
should not machinery be adapted to this purpose! This is 
pre-eminently the age of invention and discovery. Intelligent 
labor was never before so honorable. Brain labor is fa^t super- 
seding physical drudgery. By the invention and use ol 
machinery, the civilized world is fast being revolutionized 
2 



18 butler's health-exercise. 

and reconstructed. Every thing is being done better and more 
profitably by machinery than ever before. Productive energy 
is increasing with the speed and capacity of mechanical ac- 
tion. But commerce, agriculture, and manufactures must not 
monopolize the use of machinery : we propose to apply it 
directly to the culture of man, physically and mentally. The 
physician and teacher, not less than the mechanic and farmer, 
must call machinery to their aid. With all this increase of 
capacity for labor, time becomes much more valuable. Men 
cannot afford to occupy hours in securing exercise through 
the usual forms of manual labor or the old systems of gym- 
nastics, when better exercise can be obtained in ten or fifteen 
minutes, two or three times a week, by the use of machinery. 
In application, the order of development of strength and 
health by this agency may be stated thus : 

First. It is an equalizer. 
Secondly. It is an invigorator. 

Thirdly. It is a reconstructor of the tissues of the body 
and the brain. 

That it accomplishes what we claim for it is attested by the 
practical results of its application. It is particularly com- 
mended to the attention of the public, 

1st. Because it is radically different in philosophy, machin- 
ery, and application, from any thing heretofore known in gym- 
nastics or other modes of exercise and cure. 

2d. It is an original, scientific system of mechanical action, 
or motion, adapted to the growth and development of man in 
his normal condition, and as the curative agency of his ab- 
normal condition, — equally applicable to men, women, and 
children ; making the weak strong, and permanently curing 
disease and deformity. 

3d. The system, in its practical application, is comjplete ; 
reaching every organ and fibre from head to foot ; arousing 
all those parts which are weak or diseased ; strengthening and 
preventing disease in the former, and expelling it from the 



THE LIFTING CURE. 19 

latter ; thus securing strength, health, and symmetry by the 
same process. 

4th. It is exact. Ko known mechanical law is violated, 
and all are obeyed ; making the best possible use of all exist- 
ing power as an invigorating, reproducing health and strength 
agency ; surely guarding against the liabilities to strain and 
exhaustion peculiar to those systems of exercise which violate 
mechanical laws. 

5th. It is co-ojperativ e^ in each exercise calling into regu- 
lar, harmonious action as many parts as possible ; the strong 
supporting the weak, and all togetlier putting forth their 
power, proportionately distributed, but combining in one co- 
operative effort. This is the best and only safe manner of ex- 
ercise for all classes, weak or strong, sick or well, old or young. 

6th. It is graduated^ in all the exercises, carefully adapt- 
ing the weights and the duration of the exercise to individual 
needs, rendering it perfectly safe and agreeable even in the 
most delicate cases. None are permitted to attempt the use o^ 
weights beyond their power of thorough mastery, nor for a 
longer time than is necessary fully to call forth their latent 
power ; thus preventing exhaustion, and uniformly invigorat- 
ing. 

7th. It \% pio'peTly ajpjplied. Each patient is personally 
superintended by a competent instructor specially educated 
and experienced ; while the apparatus, in design and construc- 
tion, combines simplicity and completeness in the highest de- 
gree, thus insuring safe and efficient treatment. 

8th. It invokes all hygienio agencies^ especially pure air, 
pure water, healthful food, sun, air, and water-baths, abundant 
sleep, rest, and recreation. 

9th. It \^ successful in practice; accomplishing results in 
strengthening the weak, and permanently curing disease, 
heretofore unknown either in physical culture or medicine. 

The first effect of these exercises is to bring the individual 
into proper form and shape, so that there shall be no unnat- 



20 BrTLER's HEALTH-EXEECISE. 

ural mechanical obstructions to the free and normal exercise 
of his organs. 

The second is to create functional vigor, and thus to expel 
disease, and prepare for development. 

The third is to reconstruct and build up the tissues of the 
organs, and cause an absolute organic growth. 

The fourth is to increase the healthy action and power of the 
brain and mind correspondingly with that of the body. Con- 
sequently, all the elements of a perfect manhood are increased, 
including not only intellectual vigor, but moral power and 
social purity ; for, as certainly as disease favors an abnormal 
condition of the mind as well as the body, so surely does an 
increase of health and strength become a promoter of virtue. 

LIFTING. 

The lifting apparatus comprises a substantial table, through 
the centre of which passes an upright rod, upon which the 
weights rest. This rod is raised or lowered by means of a 
screw, to obtain the exact height for the most perfect leverage 
for each individual. The screw passes through a nut resting 
upon a rubber ring, which is attached to a spring resting upon 
the table. Underneath the platform is a series of semi-ellipti- 
cal springs, which are depressed as the weight is taken upon 
the body. Between all the joints of the machine is inserted 
an artificial cartilage of rubber, which, wdth the springs, pre- 
vents sudden and abrupt action or strain, and brings the appa- 
ratus in harmony with the individual. Each of the four legs 
of the machine rests on solid balls, bedded in rubber at top 
and bottom, thus allowing perfect freedom of oscillation, and 
harmonizing the action of the machine with that of the body, 
in lifting. The lifting-bar, which, with all the apparatus, is 
patented, is so adjusted, that the hands, acting in opposite 
directions, receive the weight upon a mathematical line pass- 
ing through the centre of its bearing ; thus securing perfect 
adjustment. 



THE LIFTING CUBE. 21 

In lifting, the patient stands upon rubber plates attached 
to the platform of the table, directly over the upright rod, 
which is surmounted by an eye, or socket, containing a pivot 
directly over the centre of the weight. Through this socket 
passes the lifting-bar, — a wooden cross-piece padded with 
buckskin, adapted to the form of the hand, and so adjusted, 
that the pupil, grasping the handles as he stands astride the 
bar, with his spine directly over the rod, his shoulders in a 
perpendicular line with the hips and feet, and his head thrown 
back, takes the weight upon a straight line passing along the 
handle, and through the centre of the pivot on which the 
handle is pressed. Thus the mechanical law relating to the 
adjustment of the weight to the body by means of the cross- 
piece is fulfilled, and the weight bears equally on every part 
of the body. It is important for all these conditions to be ful- 
filled, that the eflfect upon the body may be perfect and com- 
plete. In our earlier experiments we tested thoroughly the 
efifects of lifting by means of si(ie-handles and rods, but finding 
that it precluded a perfect centralization of the weight and al- 
lowed an unguided lateral swaying movement, favoring a for- 
ward projection of the upper part of the body with a cross- 
strain the whole length of the spine and muscles of the back, 
with unequal action upon other organs, we overcame these 
difficulties by the invention of the central rod now in use^ 
which centralizes the weight, so to speak, bringing it under 
perfect control, is conformed to the anatomical predisposition 
of the body to lift weights in front, as in ordinary labor, and 
gives to each part its due proportion of exercise. Our expe- 
rience has demonstrated that the relative positions of the 
liandle, pivot, socket, and rod, with the body, cannot be in 
any way changed with equally beneficial curative results. 

The proper height of the rod, being ascertained upon the 
first exercise, should be secured at each succeeding exercise 
by exact measurement. The weight, resting by means of the 
iron nut upon the spring in the centre of the table, should be 
raised two or three inches clear of the spring when the body 



22 BUTLER S HEALTH-EXERCISE. 

is erect, and the knees fully straightened. The greatest care 
should be observed in obtaining the correct position and ad- 
justment of the body, no less in lifting the lighter than the 
heavier weights. The ankles should be about opposite the 
rod, the foot supporting the forward hand slightly in advance 
of the other. The spine should be erect ; the top of the 
shoulders well set back ; the centre of the chest fully rounded 
out ; the feet, hips, and shoulders in a perpendicular line ; 
and the weight should be raised very slowly, followed by the 
spring, until a complete co-operation of all parts of the body 
has been attained ; when the weight is raised free from the 
spring, and becomes a perfect dead-weight. Then this action 
is reversed, the weight being lowered as slowly as it is raised, 
avoiding any sudden or abrupt action. Thus we secure all the 
advantages, and none of the disadvantages, of perfect spring 
and dead- weight lifting. There is complete adjustment, 
thorough co-operation. 

The position brings the body as nearly as possible into 
perfect shape ; the manner of lifting distributes the weight co- 
operatively over the whole body, giving each organ and muscle 
its proper action, and developing the whole harmoniously. 
Commencing with a weight not more than half as large 
as the pupil is to raise at last, he should lift, usually, 
from four to six times. The first addition should be one- 
half the total amount to be added ; the second, aboat 
two-thirds of the remainder; the third and last, always the 
least. Between the successive efforts of lifting, the pa- 
tient should take sufficient time to rest, varying from one to 
five minutes or more, according to the weight lifted ; for in- 
vigoration follows from successive periods of action and re- 
action, not from actions following each other in quick succes- 
sion. This would tend rather to exhaust ; but the exercise, as 
a whole, should, in every instance, leave the pupil invigorated, 
not exhausted. 

Commencing, in the first exercise, with a weight fully 
within the control of the patient, an addition of from ^vq to 



THE LIFTING CURE. 23 

ten pounds may be made on each succeeding exercise-day, 
until the maximum weight is considerably increased, and the 
attendant instructor perceives, from the manner of lifting and 
symptoms of the patient, that he should proceed no farther at 
present ; then, on the succeeding exercise, his highest weight 
should be reduced about one hundred pounds in most cases, and 
he should again grade up as before. In some instances, it may 
be well to grade downward five or ten pounds each day, re- 
versing the process of the ascending grade to the extent of 
fifty or one hundred pounds. When a crisis is developed, the 
weights should be varied according to the symptoms and con- 
dition of the patient. No invariable rule can be given to 
apply in every case. The treatment must be as varied as the 
cases treated. To produce more decided action, the pupil 
should lift rather quicker, and with shorter rod. The amount 
of action is determined by the weight lifted ; but the manner 
of lifting determines the kind of effect. 

Heavy weights should not be lifted too often. On weights 
which tax the pupil's power severely, the system of gradation 
should be varied, so that light weights should alternate with 
heavy from day to day ; and absolute gains should not be 
made oftener than once in two or three weeks. Yery heavy 
weights should not be attempted as often as this. In training, 
one cannot be too careful in the adjustment of the apparatus 
and the manner of exercising, and cannot safely apply it with- 
out thorough and competent instruction. 



^0 029 711wU 



